Perfect shooters paved Efes road win

Anadolu Efes Istanbul made an impressive start to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season with a 71-90 road win over FC Bayern Munich on Thursday, and the victors' cause was significantly aided by extremely accurate shooting. Head coach Ergin Ataman's players converted 23 of 33 two-point attempts (69.7%) and 12 of 20 shots from beyond the arc (60%). In fact, three players were faultless from the field as Dogus Balbay, James Anderson and Tibor Pleiss made all 14 of the shots they attempted. Balbay was 3 for 3 from two-point range and added one triple, Anderson went 3 for 3 and 2 for 2, respectively, and Pleiss made 4 two-pointers to go with his only three-point try.

For Balbay, it wasn't just a perfect shooting night; he did pretty much everything else without blemish, too. The veteran guard, entering his eighth EuroLeague season with Efes, complemented his 9 points with 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 block, and he did not commit any turnovers during his 19 minutes on the floor. That added up to a performance index rating of 19, the highest of his 121-game career in the competition.

Balbay's contribution came at just the right time, too. He entered the game towards the end of the first quarter, with Bayern leading 17-13, and soon scored 5 consecutive points to give Efes a lead it would never relinquish.